Royal African Company

The Royal African Company was an English mercantile company set up by the House of Stuart and London merchants to trade in West Africa. The company was founded in 1660 by King Charles II of England to exploit the gold fields up the Gambia River, and the company also engaged in the slave trade. By the 1680s, the company was moving 5,000 slaves across the Atlantic Ocean each year, and it transported 100,000 slaves from 1672 to 1689. From 1694 to 1700, the Royal African Company and the Dutch West India Company fought over the slave trade in Ghana in the "Komenda Wars", and the party continued trading slaves until 1731, when it focused on ivory and gold dust. In 1752, the company was transformed into the African Company of Merchants.